Means
of alleviating arthritis pain with substances from the pantry rather than the
medicine chest were suggested last year in the Washington Post. “Smear Quaker
Oats, French’s Mustard or Tabasco Pepper Sauce on the area,” columnist Stefanie
Weiss suggested.

She
explained that the warmth of oatmeal is soothing and mustard “provides natural
warmth to the joints,” adding:

“Hot
sauce contains the alkaloid capsaicin, the active ingredient in remedies like
Sloan’s Liniment and Watkins (Red) Liniment. Is it messy? Sure. But it’s
inexpensive, in your kitchen right now, and it sure beats arthritis pain.”

Joey
Green, in his 2002 book “Amazing Kitchen Cures,” likewise recommended use of
Tabasco Sauce for pain, advising: “To numb the pain of sore muscles, rub the
capsaicin-laced sauce onto the skin.”

While
the McIlhenny Company, which produces Tabasco Sauce, makes no claim that its
food-enhancer is a pain liniment, it stands to reason that the substance would
serve that function. Tabasco Sauce is made from peppers. As discussed here last
week, peppers are fruits of capsicum plants. The alkaloid that makes hot
peppers hot is capsaicin, and capsaicin is known to kill pain.

In fairly recent years, pain killing creams
have prominently featured the word “capsicum,” and it has no doubt been widely supposed
that this is some new curative. Indeed, that was the assumption of a friend
who, with enthusiasm, told me about such preparations recently, contrasting
them favorably to a potion her mother had prepared for me 20 years earlier.

(The
friend had dropped by our office one day in the early 1980s and saw I was
walking hunchbacked, like a caveman. I explained I was experiencing back
trouble. The next day, she sent over a liniment prepared by her mother from a
recipe bestowed by a Georgia
pharmacist in the 1930s containing bourbon, tincture of turpentine, and
lanoline-and it worked quite well.)

The
fact is that capsicum-specifically, its property capsaicin—has long been an
unglorified ingredient, listed in small type, in pain ointments.

Capsaicin,
far from being a new pain killer, is an ancient remedy. Paul W. Bosland, a
professor of horticulture at New Mexico
State,
said in an article in 1996:

“Medicinal
use of Capsicums has a long history, dating back to the Mayas who used them to
treat asthma, coughs, and sore throats. The Aztecs used chile pungency to
relieve toothaches.”

“Capsaicin is said to do many miraculous
things medicinally,” the University
of New Mexico
website declares. “One of the most miraculous is probably its ability to
prevent or even stop a heart attack. It increases heart action without raising
blood pressure. It also thins your blood and reduces the risks of suffering a
stroke.”

The
University
of Leeds
(England)
website says of Tabasco peppers:

“The
dried fruit is a powerful local stimulant with no narcotic effect, it is most
useful in atony [tone] of the intestines and stomach. It has proved efficacious
in dilating blood vessels and thus relieving chronic congestion of people
addicted to drink. It is sometimes used as a tonic and is said to be unequalled
in warding off disease (probably due to the high vitamin C content). Some
caution should be employed, however, since large doses are extremely irritating
to the gastro-intestinal system.

“Used
externally, the fruit is a strong rubefacient stimulating the circulation,
aiding the removal of waste products and increasing the flow of nutrients to
the tissues. It is applied as a cataplasm or liniment. It has also been
powdered and placed inside socks as a traditional remedy for those prone to cold
feet....

Some
say yes. Among them is Dr. Irwin Ziment, professor emeritus of Clinical
Medicine at UCLA and former chief of medicine at Olive
View-UCLAMedicalCenter.
For adults suffering from colds, he prescribes 10 to 20 drops of Tabasco Sauce
in water three to four times a day.

Arthur
C. Gibson, a UCLA professor of biology, queries in an essay on a UCLA website:
“Did you know that a few drops of Tabasco Sauce in soda water can temporarily
dry up a cold?”

Dominion
HerbalCollege
in British Columbia,
Canada
(established in 1926) advises on its website:

“In
colds, relaxed throat, cold conditions of the stomach, dyspepsia, spasms,
palpitation, particularly in the acute stages, give a warm infusion of Capsicum
in small repeat doses, about two teaspoons every half hour or more frequently
if required.”